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Friday, October 1, 2010

“The Box” Episode Review or the shape of things to come by Paul Burrows

While I really liked last week’s episode “Olivia” I really loved this weeks “The Box” and one of the main reasons was that we got to see kooky Walter again and his interactions with Peter and Astrid. Another reason this episode was so great was being able to see Bolivia in action and her true colors along with Peter being manipulated into building the doomsday device.

During the funeral scene and beforehand it really felt like Nina actually knew that Walter would be the new head of Massive Dynamic. I’m excited to see them transition into that role of working together and tolerating each other. The best thing about it is that we will be able to find out new secrets about Massive Dynamic and if it’s really such an evil company. Speaking of hints of things to come William Bell in his will mentions a friend named Isaac “My great friend Isaac once said, life is joy, death is peace. It's transition that's difficult. I was not a man of many friends, but if I'd had hundreds, I would still cherish the two of you most. Nina, I was your right hand, and you were mine. For the many hours we spent exploring the impossible, a small thank you. And for the precious few we had alone in Tuscany, a memento of me. Walter, we gather knowledge faster than we gather wisdom. By now I trust you have ample reserves of both. I hope you've forgiven me.” That’s probably not the last time that we’ll hear his name again since the Fringe writers like to slip things in way in advance for a later pay off. I noticed that Nina received the bell that William Bell rang when Olivia had her first meeting with him in one of the still standing alternate World Trade Towers in the season 1 finale. It was also great how Walter walked past a room with a transporter and it was making the Star Trek sound.

The other great thing about this episode was the moment where Walter tries to tell Peter his side of the story; something really needs to be done to convince the Emmy voters to nominate John Nobles. It was heartbreaking to watch Walter in that moment. This also spawned another thing with the developing friendship between Walter & Astrid; it was very sweet to see how now that Walter couldn’t lean on Peter or Olivia for emotional support she was there for him and how she pushed him to do necessary things. Some are saying that it might be more, but with all of the farting, brain licking, calling her Aspirin and other crazy things that Walter did in just that episode it would be a major stretch to believe that. It’s more of a familial type friendship and it’s nice to see that.

This episode was also very telling because we saw a Bolivia who is starting to be very minorly conflicted. She asserted her dominance over Newton, but when she had to shoot the deaf guy there was the tiniest bit of hesitation. So it will be interesting watching her while she tries to influence Peter & Walter to work on the device and possibly become influenced herself and then Newton trying to take back the leadership from her. Another thing that is great is from next weeks trailer it looks like the Alternate stories will be the normal Freak/Monster/Pattern of the week and that the normal world episodes will be the search for another piece to the device. Kind of the same as usual, but I like the twist to things. As for The Observer sighting you can see the back of him walking down the stairs as Newton is leaving the Box in the subway.